THE BRUTALIST

Overture
The film opens in the 1940s, as a young woman, Zsofia (Raffey Cassidy), is being interviewed by a border officer. The scene cuts to Zsofia’s uncle, Laszlo Toth (Adrien Brody), as he is arriving to America from Budapest on a boat with other immigrants. A voiceover is heard of Laszlo’s wife, Erzsebet (Felicity Jones), having written a letter to her husband over her and Zsofia’s whereabouts before they can be repatriated. Laszlo steps outside of the boat and is in awe at seeing the Statue of Liberty.

Part One: The Enigma of Arrival (1947-1952)
Laszlo travels to Philadelphia to meet with his cousin, Attila (Alessandro Nivola). When Attila tells Laszlo that Erzsebet is still alive, Laszlo is overcome with emotion. Attila invites Laszlo to stay with him and his Catholic wife, Audrey (Emma Laird) and takes his cousin on for his furniture business. Laszlo also befriends another immigrant, Gordon (Isaach De Bankole).

Attila brings Laszlo to a client, Harry Lee Van Buren (Joe Alwyn), who wants to employ them to renovate his father’s study into a library. They gather a crew of workers to meet Harry’s deadline before the end of the week. They run into some snags, such as dropping a dome frame and shattering the glass in it. Harry’s father Harrison (Guy Pearce) arrives earlier than expected with his ailing mother. He yells at and berates Laszlo and Attila for working there. Harry refuses to pay the men for the damage to the property, and Attila chides his cousin for losing their business, as well as supposedly making a pass at Audrey (when she was the one who was coming on to Laszlo).

Years later, Laszlo is now living in a city church with others like Gordon. He has also become a heroin addict. To his surprise, he is found at his new job by Harrison, who tells him that his work in the library was well-received by his colleagues. Harrison also has looked into Laszlo’s past work as an architect back in Hungary, and the images of the buildings he helped design move him emotionally. Harrison gives Laszlo his long-overdue payment.

Harrison later invites Laszlo to a Christmas party being thrown in his honor. Laszlo explains his background to Harrison’s guests, while the two later sit alone and chat. Harrison goes into a diatribe about how devoted he was to his mother and how her parents never saw him as real family due to him being born out of wedlock. When asked about his architecture, Laszlo discusses how his style (brutalism) helps buildings withstand erosion and last longer than other buildings, especially in the time of war. Afterwards, Harrison gathers everyone outside to announce that he is bringing Laszlo on to construct a community center in honor of his mother, Margaret Lee Van Buren, which would include a gym, library, theater, and chapel.

Laszlo gets started on the project, being given a place to stay on-site as development begins. He brings on Gordon as part of the crew (who is also a heroin addict thanks to Laszlo) and creates over 80 jobs for the construction process, but clashes with certain people brought on by Harrison, such as Leslie Woodrow (Jonathan Hyde). Meanwhile, Harrison uses his lawyer to help Laszlo with getting Erzsebet and Zsofia to America.

Part Two: The Hard Core of Beauty (1953-1960)
1953 – Laszlo goes to a train station with Harry’s twin sister Maggie Lee (Stacy Martin), plus their lawyer and his wife. They are met by Erzsebet and Zsofia. Laszlo emotionally greets his wife after so long. She is now wheelchair-bound due to osteoporosis, while Zsofia is now mute. When Erzsebet asks for Attila, Laszlo mentions that he did not invite him to see her in case she had been delayed. They later have dinner with the Van Burens, where Erzsebet explains her background in journalism back home. At night, Erzsebet wants to get intimate with Laszlo, but he fears he might hurt her. She gives him a handjob and says she experienced visions of other women he was with (mostly prostitutes), but she forgives him.

During the community center’s construction, Laszlo continues to quarrel with Leslie since they went behind his back to meet with another designer, Jim Simpson (Michael Epp), in a means to deviate from Laszlo’s original ideas. When Jim is brought on, Laszlo butts heads with him as well over Laszlo’s design, leading to Jim pushing Laszlo to the ground after he insults Jim’s ideas.

Later on, Harry approaches Laszlo over Zsofia being mute and making others uncomfortable. After Laszlo’s response, Harry tells him that the family merely “tolerates” him.

A train carrying materials for construction derails, putting two brakemen in the hospital. Harrison is outraged and dismisses the rest of the crew over fears of how the news will make him look. This causes Laszlo to angrily destroy the model he made at home.

Sometime later, Zsofia starts speaking again and has married a man named Binyamin (Bennett Vilmanyi), and she is five months pregnant. Zsofia announces to Laszlo and Erzsebet that she and Binyamin are making Aliyah and planning to move to Jerusalem. Erzsebet is saddened by the news and argues with Zsofia over whether or not they are living by the Jewish faith well enough in America (Erzsebet is also said to have converted for Laszlo), but Zsofia also tries to encourage them to go with her and Binyamin, as she feels that Erzsebet’s job writing for a woman’s column in the paper is beneath her. Laszlo also announces that Harrison has decided to restart the project and is bringing him back on the job.

Laszlo travels with Harrison to Carrara and meets with a colleague, Orazio (Salvatore Sansone), to look over marble for purchasing in the mines. At night, Laszlo is weakened from his heroin use, and a drunken Harrison rapes him in a show of dominance.

As the project continues, Laszlo grows more aggressive with the workers, including Gordon. He fires a young employee for playing with the scaffolding, and then Gordon for talking back to him. Laszlo drives back to Manhattan with Erzsebet and angrily tells her that Americans do not want people like them in the country, including Attila.

At night, Erzsebet suffers from pain, and Laszlo is unable to find her medicine since Zsofia was the one who usually gave it to her. He injects her with some heroin to ease the pain, but Erzsebet begins to suffer an overdose. He rushes her to the hospital, where he stays by her side until she regains consciousness. Erzsebet comes to agree with Laszlo on his feelings over America, and her desire to be with Zsofia and her daughter.

Erzsebet later uses a walker and goes to the Van Buren house while they are in a business meeting. She openly accuses Harrison of being a rapist in front of everyone, after Laszlo confessed to her at home what he did. Harrison denies this claim, and Harry aggressively drags Erzsebet out of the room, while Maggie profusely apologizes for her family’s behavior. Harrison then disappears and is nowhere to be found. Harry leads a search party for him on the grounds of the estate, but he is implied to have been found dead.

Epilogue: The First Architecture Biennale
In 1980, a retrospective of Laszlo’s work is taking place in Venice. Erzsebet has long since passed, but Zsofia (Ariane Labed) has returned, along with her adult daughter (also Raffey Cassidy) wheeling an elderly Laszlo for a speech. Zsofia gives a speech about her uncle’s work, and how the community center was finished and designed to resemble concentration camps. She concludes with something that Laszlo told her: “No matter what others try and sell you, it is not the destination, it is the journey.”